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EDITORS’ NOTES

The Australian group finally returns with its long-rumored follow-up to Since I Left You, the 2000 album that earned them a ravenous following. Wildflower is a continuous mix of the wild and weird, another hallucinogenic collage of samples ranging from R&B to orchestral pop. From the calypso-klezmer "Frankie Sinatra," featuring Danny Brown, to Biz Markie chomping over a Beatles sample on "Noisy Eater,” it’s the tour de force soundtrack to music's past and present.

Wildflower

EDITORS’ NOTES

The Australian group finally returns with its long-rumored follow-up to Since I Left You, the 2000 album that earned them a ravenous following. Wildflower is a continuous mix of the wild and weird, another hallucinogenic collage of samples ranging from R&B to orchestral pop. From the calypso-klezmer "Frankie Sinatra," featuring Danny Brown, to Biz Markie chomping over a Beatles sample on "Noisy Eater,” it’s the tour de force soundtrack to music's past and present.

About The Avalanches

Never mind digging in the crates -- the Avalanches probably just buy them whole, sight unseen, and find a way to bounce off each platter. Eventually morphing into a gang of six merrymakers bent on filtering their all-encompassing record collections through original instrumentation and a great deal of sampling, the Avalanches came from one of the most unlikely places to generate mind-bending dance music -- Australia -- and in 2000 released an album, Since I Left You, that became a timeless classic.

Perfectly fitting with the band's range, the roots of the crew are in punk. Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann were in a couple of short-lived outfits together, most notably the Swinging Monkey Cocks. Gordon McQuilten, Tony Diblasi, and Dexter Fabay eventually joined in on the mess, but they acquired turntables and set their sights on dance music of the sample-based variety, originally leaning on abstract hip-hop and naming themselves the Avalanches. Trifekta Records released the Rock City single in 1997, which soon brought the interest of Australian label Modular. With a long-term deal freshly inked, they released the seven-track El Producto EP and polished their outlandish live show, including dates with the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Rex issued the Undersea Community EP in 1998, which culled from the band's demo trove. Somewhere along the way, keyboardist James De La Cruz was added to the lineup.

An extensive patch of time was spent building Since I Left You, a 60-minute melting pot of the band's collective influences that sounds like a postcard to anyone who has ever made a record. Released in their native land in late 2000 and preceded by the appetite-whetting Frontier Psychiatrist EP, it received a response from critics and the public that reflected the album's glowing nature. The group even had the blessing of Madonna, who allowed them to sample the bassline to "Holiday" -- the first time she okayed such a thing. Beggars Banquet offshoot XL issued the album in the U.K. in May of 2001; Sire released it in the U.S. in November of the same year. They followed it up with two singles taken from the album, "Since I Left You" and "Radio," that were filled with remixes by the likes of Stereolab, spiritual forefather Prince Paul, and Cornelius.

In the years that followed, the album's reputation grew by leaps and bounds, whetting people's appetite for a follow-up album. What they got instead was an intermittent stream of remixes over the next few years (for Belle and Sebastian, Manic Street Preachers, Franz Ferdinand, and others) until 2007, when the group seemed to disappear, leaving only the rumors of a new album that popped up every couple years. In truth, they had begun working on a new album that over time expanded to 40 songs. Nothing album-like was ever finished, though, and the Avalanches spent their time on other projects, like scoring a King Kong musical and working on an animated film that never saw the light of day.

Finally, in 2016, the band (now down to a core of Robbie Chater and Tony Diblasi) announced that a new album would be coming later that year. To the delight of their long-suffering fans, Wildflower was indeed released in July and featured guest appearances by Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, MF Doom, Danny Brown, Toro y Moi, and Father John Misty, among others. ~ Andy Kellman